Change of profession

[3DH]

Translator:
Since 2013 I have been trading in my favorite ship Boa 2 Class Cruiser. I already have over 3300 kills, but I need another 3100 kills to reach Elite level. I am wondering whether to change my profession and ship to something completely different, namely the fastest fighter available in the base game. I am thinking about Asp Mark II. Before I do that I wanted to ask about a few things.

How often can I buy a ship equipped with Naval Energy Unit at TL15 stations? I am only interested in Boa 2 Class Cruiser and Asp Mark II.

How often does the list of available ships change?

Parcels will be my main source of income. Are there any guides on this topic?

How can you lose your reputation? Does doing nothing also lower your reputation?

[Cholmondely]

I'm no great expert, sorry.

But the NEU seems to be relatively rare - this can be altered by OXPs, but I doubt many understand how. I did notice at least 3 struts with NEUs in various stations when I was playing v.1.77.1 last month (with a cocktail of some 100-odd old oxps

[Cholmondely]

As regards Contracts (again, I’m no expert) your reputation does indeed fade away over time if you do nothing on the contract front to maintain/improve it.

There is more advice/links to threads with advice on our wiki’s “Contracts” page.

The two most crucial things to bear in mind are
1) that jumping from (eg.) Isinor to Ensoreus (41 hours) takes much less time if you go via Bemaera & Xeesle (15 hours) - but there are consequences for ship maintenance

2) ship maintenance lasts longer if done at a high TL system. Phkb’s Maintenance Tune Up oxp allows you to do a pre-emptive maintenance.

And 3) Alnivel’s Route Planner oxp allows planning more complex routes

4) Auto-docking costs 20 minutes each time you do it - usually faster to do it manually or use ILS (the F2 “game options” screen allows you to disable the Docking Protocol which might force you to wait)

[3DH]

Thanks for your reply.

I found the answer to a few questions myself. For example, new ships appear every week. The list changes only after loading a save or, as I guess, after returning from another system. Waiting in one place does nothing and even after a month nothing has changed.

NEU in ships is quite often at stations with the highest technological level.

The ships are always the same, i.e. it is not completely random. Now I know that after three weeks Asp Mark II with NEU will be available for purchase and I can start earning money and wait for the desired ship.

I am just wondering how it is with reputation. Does it drop if we do not complete orders for a long time? It turned out that I had orders with passengers and cargo at level 54/70. I completely forgot about it. Now I have it at the maximum level and every week (in the game) I check if I am losing reputation points. So far and probably for a maximum of 4 weeks the reputation level has not changed.

I'll check out the contract thread right away. Thanks.

[Cholmondely]

Here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Contracts

[3DH]

p.s. Is that 30 days game time for reputation adjustment or RL time?

Game time. It's calculated based on your witchspace jumps, so if you're doing lots of quick jumps it may be fewer than 30 days, and if you're doing mostly long 6+ LY jumps it will generally take quite a bit longer than 30 days. But once every 30 days is probably a reasonable average for typical routes.

I lose an average of 1 reputation point per month.

So I'll stay in my Boa 2, I can do everything in it. In Asp Mark II I could only do one job. Too bad, because I wanted to go wild with the fastest ship in the game.

[Cholmondely]

If you are willing to add some OXPs to your game, you will find a greater choice of ships there. (See, for example, Fastest Ships (Oolite) which is not quite up-to-date).


Looking at your 2 linked YouTube videos you might find the following of interest:

1) Market Observer: adds market comparison statistics to the F8 screen (the left margin notes are added by the XenonUI oxp):




2) I usually head away from the station when I arrive at the witchpoint beacon in a new system. The traffic is mostly on the "space lane" directly between the witchpoint beacon and the station. By heading away I avoid the traffic and the resulting masslocks. No need for cloaking devices, no need for fuel injection.


3) There are targeting OXPs which help locate targets such as Thargoids/Thargons: see Guide to Accuracy OXPs for an analysis. The Integrated Targeting System highlights multiple thargoids at the same time. I personally find the Target System Plugins very useful (Short Range Snapshot & Target Memory Interface).






4) Rock Hermits usually pay better prices than the main stations for wines/liquors and have much lower prices for gold, platinum, gems, radioactives & minerals


5) You might find your fellow compatriot (Gnievmir's) HUD of interest. Phkb has a spanking new update of it: see Vimana-X HUD. The Vimana HUD target reticle changes colour when you are in line with your target!




6) BGS adds to the docking/witchspace sequences (BGS launch, BGS jump, BGS misjump).





Or. if you prefer the vanilla sequences, try out cim's Enhanced Misjump OXP - which is brilliant! I defy you not to laugh when you try it out.

[3DH]

Thanks but I don't like mods. The only mods I've made are a dot in the middle of the crosshair and I've slightly changed the HUD.

[Cholmondely]

Thanks but I don't like mods. The only mods I've made are a dot in the middle of the crosshair and I've slightly changed the HUD.

Gosh! Good for you!

A general distaste of mods? Horror at finding 1,100 of them? Or a preference for classic Oolite?

But the notes on avoiding the space lane and the rock hermit markets apply to the vanilla game too.

[3DH]

A general distaste of mods? Horror at finding 1,100 of them? Or a preference for classic Oolite?

But the notes on avoiding the space lane and the rock hermit markets apply to the vanilla game too.

I don't like mods in general. Not only in Oolite.
I value the vision of the creators more than the players.
Besides, mods are often like cheats, and I dislike cheats even more.

[Cholmondely]

“Thank you” for explaining!

1) Clearing up odds and ends: the Integrated targeting system is a vanilla game piece of equipment

2) Some of the oxps were produced by our game lead developers (aegidian, cim & a_c). These are very definitely not “cheats”, adding complexity and not making things easier.

3) I know nothing about other games. But Oolite was developed as a modifiable version of classic Elite by Aegidian (back in 2003-6). He wanted to teach people like myself how to programme. And some of his early oxps were written as examples for the rest of us. So the “modding” was built in from the start.

4) Some mods allow one to transform the replica of 1984’s classic Elite into something much more modern. BGS, GNN, Library oxp (for example) all do this.

5) Some mods try to recreate the world of the novel “The Dark Wheel” which came in the original game box back in 1984.

6) Others make the game more difficult.

7) Others make the game more realistic and more sophisticated (eg. The System oxps or the Ambience oxps).

Some are outright cheats and are labelled as such on our wiki.

9) Yet others create new games using the Oolite engine (Hermitage and the SOTL oxps)

10) BUT: there are over 1,100 of the things and it takes a lot of effort and a long time to understand which does what.